Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent)

The Irish Human Rights Commission, in its report of 2010 and assessment of human rights issues arising from the Magdalene laundries, declined to conduct an inquiry into the treatment of women and girls in those institutions. It published 12 conclusions and recommended, and rightly so, that the State set up a statutory inquiry to examine serious human rights issues and provide redress for the survivors. The State decided to establish an interdepartmental committee of inquiry whose terms of reference are narrower than the report. Can Dr. Manning outline the advantages of a statutory, as opposed to a non-statutory, inquiry? Is the commission satisfied with the route the Government has chosen to deal with the Magdalene laundries?